Prince Harry's memoir, Spare, scheduled for release on January 10, 2023, will open with the most heartbreaking scene any royal fan remembers: on September 6, 1997, as Prince William walks behind the coffin of his beloved mother to Westminster Abbey, where Princess Diana's funeral took place Prince William, 15, and Prince Harry, only 12, walk solemnly behind their beloved mother's coffin to Westminster Abbey, where Princess Diana's funeral took place on September 6, 1997.

The princes were flanked by their father, then Prince Charles, their grandfather, Prince Philip, and their uncle, Earl Charles Spencer, brother of Princess Diana, who died in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997. Although the procession was only a mile long, the wounds of the occasion have haunted both brothers to this day.

Christopher Andersen, author of The King: The Life of King Charles III (opens in new tab), which was released on November 8, said that the king made his sons walk behind the coffin of his first wife He said that he deeply regrets having let his sons walk behind the coffin of his first wife, and stated, "I think it bothers the king as much as it bothers his sons."

Speaking on the podcast "Royally Us," Andersen said, "[William and Harry] talk about it, I think it's a form of PTSD. Harry uses words like, even flying to London triggers it, and he remembers that day when he had to walk behind the coffin. They were more or less bullied by the palace, bullied by the gray men who actually ran the palace, and made to do so by the palace (which Diana often complained about)."

According to Andersen, the new king "understands that it is to some extent his fault that [William and Harry] had to suffer." [According to the Daily Express, in a podcast interview, Andersen also said he regrets that Count Spencer persuaded William and Harry to walk behind the coffin. One wonders what the princes are thinking and feeling as Princess Diana sleeps. For Harry, this is finally his own story.